Beijing Platform

The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence. Equal relationships between women and men in matters of sexual relations and reproduction, including full respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect for the integrity of the person, require mutual respect, consent and shared responsibility for sexual behavior and its consequences [para.96].

Reproductive rights as a women's issue

Organizations such as the Center for Reproductive Rights, the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization and the National Organization for Women pursue reproductive rights with a primary emphasis on women's rights. While much attention has been paid to abortion rights as one aspect of reproductive rights, groups focus on a range of issues from access to family planning services, sex education, menopause, and the reduction of obstetric fistula, to the relationship between reproductive health and economic status.
   The group Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) spoke for a variety of women when it stated:

Control over reproduction is a basic need and a basic right for all women. Linked as it's to women's health and social status, as well as the powerful social structures of religion, state control and administrative inertia, and private profit, it's from the perspective of poor women that this right can best be understood and affirmed. Women know that childbearing is a social, not a purely personal, phenomenon; nor do we deny that world population trends are likely to exert considerable pressure on resources and institutions by the end of this century. But our bodies have become a pawn in the struggles among states, religions, male heads of households, and private corporations. Programs that don't take the interests of women into account are unlikely to succeed...

One group, The National Center for Men (NCM), has claimed certain reproductive rights of men are not legally recognized. On their website, the NCM claim to have brought a case to the United States sixth circuit Court of Appeals, which they label "Roe vs. Wade For Men."

Reproductive rights in the United States

In the United States, the public debate surrounding reproduction rights is often about abortion rights. Reproductive rights advocates support a woman's right to abortion and contraception from within the context of the right to privacy, or freedom from governmental interference, supporting legalized contraception and abortion.
   In the United States Constitution, the right to privacy has been interpreted to include reproductive rights, as seen in numerous Supreme Court cases. Three important cases are Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972), and Roe v. Wade (1973). In Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme court overturned a state law prohibiting the use of contraceptives, which established a constitutional right to privacy and legalized contraception for married people. Eisenstadt v. Baird extended the right to use contraceptives to unmarried people. Roe v. Wade legalized abortion on a federal level.
   The term procreative liberty was coined by John A. Robertson, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Texas School of Law.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Reproductive Rights'.

External Link Exchanges Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page: <a href="http://reproductive_rights.totallyexplained.com">Reproductive rights Totally Explained</a> Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.    As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.